1. Place the peaches or nectarines into a juicer and extract the juice. Pour the juice into a blender with the remaining ingredients except the maple syrup and blend.2. Taste the smoothie for sweetness, adding a little maple syrup if necessary.3. Serve immediately in tall glasses.

Preparation method 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 2. Place the garlic, soy sauce, honey, juice of two limes and the chicken thighs into a bowl. Marinade for as long as you can, but can be done just 5 minutes beforehand. 3. If possible use an oven proof frying pan, if not you need to preheat a small casserole dish. 4. Using your preferred frying pan, heat on a medium heat. 5. Place 2 halves of the leftover limes into the pan. 6. When fragrant, add your chicken thighs skin side down to the pan and cook for 3 minutes. 7. Turn and cook for a further 2 minutes. 8. Now pour over the remaining marinade and place the pan in the oven for 15 minutes. 9. Meanwhile, cook your noodles and warm through your beansprouts in a pan with a teaspoon of sesame oil. 10. Serve with rice noodles or salad.

Thursday, 27 January 2011

It's that time of year where training schedules need to begin! If you are to train sufficiently enough to prepare for your event, whether it's the London marathon or an Ironman in June you need to start now!

With so much information available it is easy to get confused!

But the key for either event is to design a plan of attack, AND STICK TO IT!

Ensure it is realistic and you allow enough time to complete each training session. (Ironman - not so easy!)

For more tips and advice on planning your regime, post a comment on the blog below.

Saturday, 22 January 2011

If you usually run, cycle, swim, or play sports at a moderate intensity for less than about 50 minutes at a time, don't worry too much about carbo-loading unless you train more than once a day or tend to eat too little carbohydrate.

However, interval and repetition workouts can dramatically deplete glycogen, even when they last less than 50 minutes, so do consider using the strategy AFTER high-intensity sessions, especially if you plan to cycle or go for a long, steady run later in the day.

During all periods of very heavy training and whenever you are significantly increasing your workout duration or total training volume, give Carb- loading a try. Also employ the strategy during times when extensive power or speed training is a priority.

To determine how much carbohydrate you require simply multiply your weight in pounds by three. Divide this by 16 to determine the number of grams of carbohydrate to eat every 15 minutes for the following four hours post exercise.

As you don't usually think about how many grams of carbohydrate you're actually ingesting, I've made things easier for you by listing food servings which provide about 20-25 grams of carbohydrate:

(1) Two cups of skim milk (2) A little more than half a bagel (3) A two-thirds cup serving of cooked pasta (4) An apple or a banana or a pear (5) Four dates (6) A cup of orange juice (7) One-fifth of a cup of raisins (or two half-ounce packets) (8) An ounce and one-half of corn chips (9) A medium baked potato (10) A slice and a quarter of most breads (11) Two slices of non-fat 'diet' bread (12) A cupcake (13) An English muffin (14) A cup of oatmeal (15) One and one-half cups of Special K cereal (16) One-half cup of cooked rice (17) Three carrots (18) Two-thirds of a cup of cooked lentils (19) A half-cup of cooked kidney or pinto beans (20) A cup of split pea or bean soup.

If ingesting 20-25 grams of carbohydrate every 15 minutes for four hours after a tough workout is just too much of a bother, a modified version by consuming 40-50 grams every 30 minutes or 60-75 grams every 45 minutes. This should still yield similar rates of carbohydrate warehousing.

Carbo-loading requires some planning, and you'll still want to eat some additional carbohydrates during your regular meals, but the effort should add fire to your training and competitive efforts. With extra carbohydrate in your muscles, you'll simply be able to train or compete at a fast pace for longer periods of time.

Friday, 21 January 2011

We've all heard the, use a smaller plate tactic as a way of reducing food volume. We have also heard, leave a few mouthfuls of food on your plate after each meal. How many of you succeed at doing that!

Try this!

Instead of waiting until the end of the meal to leave behind some tasty mouthfuls of food, why not get rid of them at the beginning. Serve your food as normal but scoop off a few spoonfuls before you sit down to eat it. This should, overtime, give you control over your eating allowing you to dictate how much YOU should eat, rather than the plate.

How much water do you consume? Do you drink more on workout days? Not sure? Read this interesting article below.

If you do not drink sufficient fluids over the long term the body sets up a condition of "drought management". You no longer feel thirsty, because the body has given up. It puts in place mechanisms to conserve water and push it into areas where it is needed. Most notable are a tightening of the blood system leading sometimes to marked high blood pressure, retaining water (the body is desperate to), and the production of a chemical called histamine. Histamine induces inflammation in the body, and inflammation causes pain. Since the body requires water in energy production, a drop in fluids sends the physical energy plummeting. Mentally, the person suffers from an inability to think clearly. The commonest symptoms of dehydration are thus:

Inability to think clearly

Poor Physical Energy

Sugar Craving

Poor Circulation

High Blood Pressure

Allergies

Joint Pain

Stomach Pain

Irritable Bowel

Angina Pain

Headaches

Back Pain

Water Retention

NOT THIRST!

The most common dehydrating influences are caffeine, alcohol and stress. All are diuretics, that is they get you to lose more water than you are taking in, until the body clamps down and reaches an equilibrium. Unless you are drinking a lot of water already, you are almost bound to be chronically dehydrated.

To rehydrate is simple. Drink water. Nothing else. The body requires that enough water is present consistently to let go of its defensive mechanisms. If you are doing it right you get thirsty in your mouth and the symptoms you may have in the above list start to reduce. If you drink water and have the odd tea or coffee, likely as not, you cannot restimulate the thirst in the mouth as the body is not letting go.

Start with around 2 litres of water a day and look for the thirst.

WHEN YOU ARE DRINKING WATER AND YOU GET THIRSTY, DRINK MORE

Anything that is taken into the stomach that is not water will stimulate the production of digestive juice FROM WATER IN THE BODY. The immediate effect is registered as dehydration and the body will not let go. There are a couple of simple rules:

ONLY PLAIN WATER WILL REHYDRATE YOU

DRINK WATER A ½ HOUR BEFORE MEALS TO ENSURE A RESERVOIR FOR DIGESTIVE JUICES

The only cautions are not to be dumb! Don't force it in trying to rehydrate quickly. You can only go at the body's pace. There is a severe brain problem people can get into when they force water into the body and the body has a low level of sodium. Dr. Batmanghelidj advises people to put a pinch of salt into several of the glasses of water each day to offset this problem and attain optimal rehydration. Intense rehydration is not suitable for someone on a low sodium (salt) diet, though sodium can be obtained plentifully and in optimally useable form in RAW root vegetables and celery. Use ideally sun-dried salt if you are unsure about your sodium status, and back off the amount of water if there are any adverse symptoms.

IT WILL TAKE MONTHS TO REHYDRATE FULLY FOR MOST PEOPLE.

Also if you have reduced kidney function due to perhaps long term dehydration, you may need to increase water steadily so as not to retain water.